Alex Carder receives high marks for five-touchdown second act

John A. Lacko / Special to the GazetteWestern Michigan University quarterback Alex Carder looks to pass Saturday night during the first half against Nicholls State.

KALAMAZOO — Western Michigan University coach Bill Cubit looked
down at the stat sheet for Alex Carder’s name.

“What’d he have, five touchdowns?” Cubit said, following the Broncos’
49-14 victory over Nicholls State on Saturday night. “You know, that’s pretty good for a young guy.”

“Pretty good” seemed a fitting term for Carder’s second go under
center for the Broncos. The redshirt sophomore quarterback directed and carried the offense with 298 yards, completing
24 of his 33 attempts.

He became only the sixth Bronco QB ever to throw five TDs in a game and the first since Tim Hiller did so in that epic, five-overtime loss to Ball State in October of 2005.

But with those sparkling stats came an interception late in
the second quarter that handed the Colonels the ball on the Broncos' 4-yard line, resulting in a touchdown that briefly knotted the game at 14-all.

“When he's good, he's real, real good,” Cubit said of Carder. “Sometimes, like the interception, he probably just tried to
get too cute. He wanted a first down and to get it out there and guys
weren't ready and he just all of a sudden throws it out there. We had
probably, I want to say, two bad checks, but that was better than we
had the first week.”

Carder commanded a nearly flawless first drive by completing four
consecutive passes of more than 10 yards, setting up a 1-yard touchdown run
by Antoin Scriven. From there, any trouble Carder ran into didn’t seem
to come from the Colonels.

"(The) first drive was exactly what we wanted,”
Carder said. “I think, as far as my (mentality), after that,
I kind of got in a different mode and kind of got away from what we
were really planning on doing so we kind of stalled a little bit.”

In addition to a steady diet of short passes, Carder
proved himself as a deep threat, hooking up with Jordan White for a
74-yard bomb early in the second quarter.

"In this offense, it’s all about consistency,” Carder said. “It’s
all about making the throws and staying in the process and I guess I
was trying to do too much at certain points and that kind of got me in
trouble. Once I relaxed a little bit, and let the offense run itself, I
was a lot more comfortable."

Carder retained his rep as a fearless runner, which also showed in
the season-opening loss to Michigan State. He ran five times on
Saturday, one a 12-yard scamper in the first quarter that left him lost in a pile with his helmet rolling on the ground. Carder ended up netting just five rushing yards.

“The kid's a good player and we have some weapons around him and I think he did a nice job,” Cubit said.